Buying a house - lost deeds

millie975

We have been trying to buy a house since last August. It is an executors sale and in September they realised they did not have the deeds which are vital for a sale as the property is not registered with land registry. The law society has traced some documents which were with a firm of solicitors which has since closed down but informed us in November they could not confirm they were the deeds and could not look at them for at least 6 weeks as they were very busy. The executors solicitors say they cannot apply for possessory title until they have heard back from the law society about these documents.

We are in a rented house just waiting for these documents to be looked at, and no-one seems to be in any hurry to do it. Is there anything we can do to speed things up or put some pressure on the law society to get a move on?

DVardysShadow

Put down a deadline of 6 months from your offer being accepted and state that your offer will drop by the difference between your rent and your future mortgage for every month this goes on. But I doubt you will hurry the law soc.

millie975

millie975 wrote: »

We have been trying to buy a house since last August. It is an executors sale and in September they realised they did not have the deeds which are vital for a sale as the property is not registered with land registry. The law society has traced some documents which were with a firm of solicitors which has since closed down but informed us in November they could not confirm they were the deeds and could not look at them for at least 6 weeks as they were very busy. The executors solicitors say they cannot apply for possessory title until they have heard back from the law society about these documents.

We are in a rented house just waiting for these documents to be looked at, and no-one seems to be in any hurry to do it. Is there anything we can do to speed things up or put some pressure on the law society to get a move on?

Does anyone know if there really anything to stop the vendors solicitors applying for possessory title while we all wait for the Law society to get its act together?

DVardysShadow

millie975 wrote: »

Does anyone know if there really anything to stop the vendors solicitors applying for possessory title while we all wait for the Law society to get its act together?

They could try to apply for possessory title immediately AFAICS. But it is 'weaker' than full title - and it is in your interests to let them try for full title, I would have thought.

If they did get possessory title, then that would stop all efforts by the Law Society and you would not have the standing to get the Law Society to go back through the files of the solicitor of the deceased benefactor of the estate from whose executors you bought the house.

And then you would be in a weaker position when it comes to you turn to sell. If it is all taking too long, start looking for another property.

millie975

Well we managed to get our solicitor to contact the Archive Dept of the Law Society today. They checked the documents and say they are not the deeds. So we can now proceed on the basis of lost deeds.

Does that mean the vendors solicitors have to apply for possessory title? Does anyone know how long that takes? Also as it has implications if we come to sell the house before full title is granted we think we should ask for a reduction in price but what sort of reduction would be appropriate? We are already out of pocket as we have had to rent a house for 6 months in order not to lose our buyer so it would be good to make up for that expense at least.

flora48

My friend has possessary title only to her property, she does not get full title for 12 years. She wishes to sell and her solicitor has suggested that she takes out an indemnity policy to for cover in the event of buyers having problems in the future. I don't know the cost of this but I thought it may give you another avenue to consider.